Band Spotlight

Longtime friends and musicians Aaron Stanley and Robert Reynolds kicked around the idea of a cool 90s cover band for a few years until putting the notion into motion last summer. The pals agree they disagree on each other’s taste in music except when it comes to their formative years of the 1990s, “to the […]

Warning, warning this is only a reunion show. Please do not get extremely excited about Park doing more recording or touring. Miles Parkhill reports all band members including Ladd, Alex and Aaron are proud papas and plan to continue devoting precious time to the family. Nevertheless they all miss music a lot and you can […]

Established as one of the finest pure blues bands in central Illinois, Bluesmattic built a reputation by persevering through fine playing and good performing. The rocking blues trio of Robert Beam (guitar), Greg Campbell (bass) and Scott Henrikson (drums) began as a unit in 2006 combining decades of previous experience from different areas. Beam came […]

These two seasoned veterans of the local music scene recently collaborated on a CD of original tunes and intend to perform them at the CD release show. Conceived by Lounsberry (vocals, keyboards), Lowder (vocals, percussion) contributed to the production as the two performing songwriters combined to create a project designed to “capture an audience that […]

Not so long ago, vocalist Rod Grant, guitarist Johnny Johnson and bass player Doug Antonacci, all former members of Late Arrival (a previous winner in IT’s Best of Springfield for band duties, by the way) and vets of other bands, began planning for another foray into the music scene by searching for drummers who could […]

Jessica Jolly and Nate Blesse started an acoustic duo a few years back to get experience playing out and give the world a chance to experience Jessica’s original songs. Drummer Robert Burtnett joined in late 2009 and the trio played “more than a few gigs in the area and abroad,” but the group solidified as […]

With a new album produced by Chad Gray and Greg Tribbett of Mudvayne out in May of 2010 and fresh from a sweet spot on the main stage of OzzFest tour, the South Florida hard rock quartet Nonpoint is out to make a point. The debut single Miracle charted higher than any other from the […]

In an amazing career that spans four decades, Tret Fure began singing professionally at 16, worked with Spencer Davis at 19, soon after signed with MCA/UNI Records and released her major label debut in 1973, produced by none other than legendary Little Feat founder, the late Lowell George. After several years in the industry as […]

St. Louis-based band Alabaster Brown spent a good deal of 2010 traveling the country, especially in the Midwest and up and down the East Coast with festival stops at Springjam at Camp Zoe in Salem, Mo., Summercamp in Chillicothe, Ill., Mountain Jam in Woodstock, N.Y., and North Coast Festival in Chicago. The rockin’ roots quartet […]

Considered one of the most prolific and profound artists in the Americana genre, Alejandro Escovedo quite simply is legendary. From his early days with punk/country/rockers Rank & File in the 1980s through a brilliant solo career nearly cut short by a serious bout with Hepatitis C in 2003, the Austin-based artist plays blistering electric guitar […]

The Hired Hands moniker originated from an offhand comment by local music guy Sean Burns about the shifting musicians in Tom Irwin’s groups of the early 2000s. With the added descriptive adjective “Notorious” distinguishing them from other accompanists, the name stuck on this combination of Tom “Dooley” Woolsey (guitar), Raoul (guitar), Keith Voegele (bass) and […]

About five months ago, Mike Williams, former guitarist in the Lost Boys and Misspent Youth, devised a strategy to form a band. He invited fellow central Illinois music “vets” Kortney Leatherwood (Sleepwalker, 808, Stone Giants) on guitar, Perry Zubeck (Cats on Holiday) on keyboards, Steve Gragert (Dirty Ernies) on bass and Shaun Tobin (Lost Boys) […]